


(After) The Rescue

by Sashas_Fierceness



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:48:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28202628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sashas_Fierceness/pseuds/Sashas_Fierceness
Summary: Season 2 of the Mandalorian Finale Spoilers!!!! Do not read if you have not watched.I think we are all in our feelings right now about the ending of Season 2. Personally, I loved it, but I also understand it has left many gobsmacked. You aren't the only ones.It was rough on everyone involved. Really, just read this one shot I envision as what happened as our team of heroes was rescued and what happened in the moments after.
Relationships: Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV) & Din Djarin & Cara Dune, Din Djarin & Cara Dune, Din Djarin/Cara Dune
Comments: 26
Kudos: 185





	(After) The Rescue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Name1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Name1/gifts), [Lady_Vibeke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Vibeke/gifts).



> Hey everybody! I know I have been MIA, but well, 2020. Amirite? I'm doing my best to make room for writing in my very intense at the moment schedule. This was short and doable, but I'm getting to my WIP as well.
> 
> People keep pointing out that the camera panned to Cara right after it did a close up of Din when Luke walks away with the Kid. This is my take on why that happened.

***

Time and reality come to a screeching halt on Moff Gideon’s Imperial Cruiser the moment Luke Skywalker steps aboard. The surreal experience of meeting a Jedi in the flesh is different for all seven occupants barricaded on the bridge.

Moff Gideon is plagued with terror long before the other adults around him are aware of their rescuer’s identity. He has heard whispers of this “Luke Skywalker” since the war. Gideon knows what the young man is capable of, and even suspects the Jedi’s lineage is more hallowed than most people in the Galaxy could ever imagine. If the son walks in the light as strongly as his father held to the dark, Gideon is done for. Gideon prides himself on knowing everything, and taking the proper precautions as a result. A blaster under the chin is the only option. Until the Rebel Dropper literally drops him where he stands.

Fennec Shand, the interloper turned comrade and assassin for hire, is well schooled in channeling fear into vigilance. She does not stop the bounty hunter she knows only as “Mando” from opening the blast door to the bridge, allowing the Jedi to enter. Nor does she lower her appropriated blaster rifle either once the hooded figure steps through the door. Shand’s Master has tasked her with protecting Mando and his Foundling and she will. Even if it means her own death at the hand of this unknown Jedi.

Bo-Katan Kryze, the Mandalorian and exiled princess of Mandalore, is not frightened by the presence of a Jedi. She has fought against, and with, force wielders before. The Jedi is just another obstacle between her and the Dark Saber, another diversion from her quest. Kryze watches as the lost Child of the Watch hands his Foundling over to the Jedi. The pain radiating from the man as he murmurs encouragements to the Foundling, and the despondent set of his shoulders are the only things which stay her hand. Otherwise, she would drop the fundamentalist where he stood, at his most vulnerable, in order to earn back the Dark Saber.

Koska Reeves, Bo-Katan’s second in command, is still recovering from the many rounds of blaster fire she took when Gideon opened fire on her. Blaster fire is no match for beskar armour, but Reeves is already feeling the bruises bloom behind her chest plate all the same. She is shaken up to say the least, and considering the Mandalorian used his own body to shield both her and his Foundling from Gideon’s murderous rampage her loyalties are shaken too.

Reeves is sure her leader, Bo-Katan, has a blaster aimed at the Jedi, but she also suspects the other is trained on the back of the Mandalorian’s now exposed head. Reeves keeps one eye on the interaction between the Jedi and the Mandalorian, and the other on her leader. Her suspicions are unsettling, but that doesn’t make them any less real.

Cara Dune, former Rebellion shock trooper and current Marshall of the New Republic, experiences Luke Skywalker’s presence differently than anyone onboard, save the Mandalorian’s Foundling. Parts of her world slide magnetically into place, while others are blown galaxies apart.

The rumours she’d heard as part of the Rebellion suddenly make sense. Luke Skywalker isn’t a myth told at night to keep the Rebellion alive, he is a real Jedi. Conversely, it becomes clear to Cara this miracle of a man intends to part the Mandalorian from his Foundling. Once again the world she knew will be destroyed and replaced with something new.

Din Djarin, Child of the Watch, Mandalorian, and Foundling Father, is ignorant of everything to do with the Jedi. Luke Skywalker is nothing and everything to him at once. Nothing, because Din has no reference point for the man’s existence. Everything, because the Jedi is potentially the home Din has been seeking for his son, the small alien he now knows as “Grogu”. Giving up the Child will devastate Din, but as a Foundling himself Din understands this is the way. The Foundlings are the future, and the Child’s future is the only one that matters.

Grogu, known also as “The Child” or just “Kid”, is both elated and saddened by the Jedi’s arrival. The child recognizes and exults in the existence of another force user trained in the ways of the Jedi. But, the little one is also deeply reluctant to leave the only man he has known as his father alone in the Galaxy.

Under-trained or not, Grogu can sense his father’s despair easily. Every emotion in the room is heightened and crying out in competition. Despite the cacophony of souls, Grogu is most attuned to the feelings of the two beings he has known the longest; Din and Cara.

Din has given Grogu permission to go with the Jedi, but the Child needs something else-from the Jedi-before he will consent to leave. Grogu waves his tiny arms at Luke Skywalker, the way he has done countless times at Din, and the Jedi responds immediately by swooping the youngling into his arms. Once he is able to see the Jedi eye to eye Grogu speaks to the man as only Jedi’s can.

Luke stares intently into Grogu’s fathomless orbs and acquiesces to the Child’s request. Invading the mind of another without consent is the way of the Darkside. But, Skywalker decides this is not an invasion so much as a lighting of beacons. He looks up from the Child’s face and peers briefly at Din, and then Cara. Seconds later he nods at the Mandalorian, and the older man’s tears, long held back, flow freely. As Luke turns away towards the elevator, R2 hot on his trail, the Jedi senses rather than sees the determined set of Carasynthia Dune’s chin.

When Luke turns inside the elevator to face the Mandalorian and his ragtag team of misfits one last time, Grogu is content. The Child knows the gentle nudge given to Din and Cara by his soon to be teacher will help them both navigate life without the youngling until the three can once again be united. Grogu relaxes against the Jedi’s robes as the elevator door slides shut.

***

Seconds after the elevator door slides shut chaos erupts amongst the party of beings left on the bridge of the light cruiser.

The proceedings unfold like a tragic and violent ballet. Din swings his entire body around to face the others without bothering to put his helmet back on. His gaze, still flooded with tears lands only on Cara. Cara wants to yell a warning at Din; to remind him about his helmet. Perhaps the day’s events have left him unable to consider his actions. The warning dies on her tongue once her eyes meet Din’s; it is clear he knows what he has done and needs her to understand his motives. Somehow, she does, even if this is the first time she has seen his face.

Cara shrugs off her weapon and runs to Din. The Mandalorian meets her halfway before sinking to his knees and wrapping his arms around her middle. Cara slides one hand into his hair, pressing his tear streaked face into her abdomen. She runs her other hand down Din’s back, holding him as best she can as sobs wrack his entire body. Eventually, Cara drops to her knees, pulling Din fully against her body. She gently cradles his face against her chest, and buries her nose in his hair.

Later, Cara and Din will both wonder what possessed them both to be so vulnerable in a moment of great peril. Neither noticed in that moment however, as Bo-Katan attempting to aim her blaster at Din, found herself facing down Fennec Shand, and her own second in command, Koska Reeves.

Bo-Katan narrows her eyes behind her visor and tilts her helmet towards Reeves.

“Truly Koska?” The leader of Nite Owls asks. “You would forsake me now?”

The younger woman draws herself up to full height and tries not to quake under what is surely a censorious glare beneath her mentor’s helmet.

“Never. You are my Queen,” Reeves replies. “Now and always. But, this is not the time or the place Your Grace, and you know it.”

“You’re not my Queen,” Shand states bluntly. “And I’ll drop you where you stand before you can pull that trigger.”

Bo-Katan hesitates but does not lower her weapons. Shand is compelled to warn the exiled leader a second time.

“I’ve already signaled to my Master he should return for us so that we can make our escape.” Shand explains. “Imagine his anger if he arrives to find you have killed us all to fulfill your selfish goal? Maybe you could take us all out, but do you really think you can best The Fett?”

Bo-Katan takes a long breath in and lowers her blasters on the exhale. She kicks her prized possessions towards Reeves, trusting her Number Two to return them once it is safe, or necessary, to do so.

Fennac does not lower her weapon until Koska has holstered Bo-Katan’s blasters and her own. The three women stare at one another until a loud sob from the other side of the bridge startles them. The Nite Owls pull off their helmets as Shand mounts her weapon on her back. The three unlikely comrades lower themselves to sit on the bridge stairs.

Reeves positions herself to keep her eyes on both her leader and the unconscious Moff. Fennec sits facing Cara and Din for their safety, but lowers her eyes to her boots. She doesn’t know much about Mandalorians or the Mandalorian currently clutching onto Cara Dune like she is his only anchor left to the world. Fennec is only human though, cybernetics aside, and she knows a private moment when she’s forced to witness it.

The six beings fall into silence except for the sound of Din’s crying and the soothing noises Cara is making to comfort him as they await rescue from Slave One.


End file.
